Chapter 231 The End of France (1)

Late at night, Ardennes Forest.

The deafening snoring sounded for hundreds of miles, echoing each other and rising and falling, which was very shocking. They had been tossing and turning in this rugged forest for more than fifty hours, and everyone was exhausted.

"General, why are you still not asleep?!" The adjutant who got up to urinate saw Guderian smoking there and couldn't help but ask curiously.

Guderian smiled. "Thinking about the expressions of the French when they see us tomorrow, I am so excited that I can't sleep." If they go forward for more than 10 kilometers, they can get out of the Ardennes Forest and invade the land of the French!

"Yes." When this matter was mentioned, the adjutant also became excited. "That idiot Gamelin actually transferred all the main forces to Belgium. Didn't he realize that this would create a huge gap in their homeland defense deployment? I don't know how this guy became the commander-in-chief of the British and French coalition forces."

Guderian laughed. "If he hadn't mobilized those troops to Belgium, Belgium would have surrendered by now. Just two days later, the vanguard of Admiral Reichenau's Sixth Army had already attacked the city of Brussels. If it weren't for the British and French coalition forces, the Belgians would have been scared to death. When Belgium surrendered, the British might have withdrawn their troops to defend their hometown. After all, our navy is not inferior to theirs now, and they must be afraid that we will suddenly launch a landing war. Wouldn't it be a dead end for France to fight alone at that time?"

"Your Highness is really." The adjutant's face showed a sincere sigh. They also heard from the radio that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally participated in the attack on the British fleet. "It's really shameful."

Guderian agreed deeply. "Yes, Your Highness is setting an example. If we can't win this war, we really don't deserve to be soldiers." He threw away the cigarette butt in his hand. "Go to sleep, get enough rest and break through Sedan in one fell swoop tomorrow!"

The next morning, Guderian woke up early. First, I went to a nearby spring to wash up and had a dry breakfast. "Pass the order, the whole army will check the equipment one last time."

Just as the tankers were busy checking the tightness of the tracks, the fire control system of the tanks, and the engine status, the sky was filled with the roar of the engines.

Looking up, through the gaps in the tree branches, I saw a vast fleet of aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and attack aircraft. It seemed that there were at least thousands of them.

The fleet was flying towards Sedan.

On September 1, 187o, Sedan had a world-famous battle. In that battle, 120,000 French troops were surrounded in Sedan. The battle lasted from morning to evening, and finally the white flag was raised on the top of Sedan!

Later that day, Napoleon III wrote a letter of surrender to the King of Prussia.

On September 2, under the walls of Sedan, the German Iron Chancellor Bismarck formally accepted the surrender of Napoleon III!

The significance of this event is not just a battle. It also marks that the Second French Empire has entered the cycle of history. At the same time, it also marks that the Germanic nation has completely become a whole. The German Empire was officially established. They stand in the world with an independent and proud attitude.

Despite the lessons of 1870, the French army still did not regard Sedan as a key defense area 70 years later. The famous Maginot Line ends 12 kilometers east of Sedan. Although the French Second Army, which was responsible for covering the left wing of the Maginot Line and the right wing of the French First Army Group that entered Belgium to fight, was very confident in its defense line, but as of before the war, most of the 103 fortifications of various types in Sedan were not completed, and the French army only deployed the 55th Infantry Division belonging to the Second Army here. The division was formed by older conscripts after the general mobilization, and its combat effectiveness was naturally not too strong.

The commander of the Second Army was General Charles Leon Clement Anziger. General Anziger was known as "one of the most capable generals in the French army" and was very popular in the French army. Many people even thought that he would be the next commander-in-chief of the French army. The officers of the 2nd Army praised him, saying "No one is more suitable to command the 2nd Army than Anziger."

Unfortunately, such a general who was given high hopes made several fatal mistakes.

You know, making one fatal mistake is enough to kill people, but this general made several in succession.

A great man once said a famous saying, "Despise the enemy strategically and pay attention to the enemy tactically"; but General Anziger made a feat of despising the enemy both strategically and tactically. Three days before the German army launched the attack, he said, "I never think the German army has considered the possibility of launching an attack in the Sedan area."

He said so, thought so, and did so.

By the outbreak of the war, this army had only five divisions, including one North African division (the 3rd North African Division), one colonial division from Senegal (the 3rd Colonial Division), and two second-rate infantry divisions (the 55th and 71st Infantry Divisions). The 41st Infantry Division, the most powerful of the army, was deployed on the far right of the army.

Because the terrain near Sedan was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there was the natural barrier of the Meuse River to rely on, the French army only deployed one second-rate infantry division here-the 55th Infantry Division. To the east of Sedan is Fort La Felthe, the western end of the extended section of the Maginot Line. Mouzon between Sedan and Fort La Felthe was not easy to defend, and the 2nd Army and the 10th Army put most of their energy into organizing the defense of this area.

Previously, the German army discovered through aerial reconnaissance that the French army in the Sedan area seemed to be quite well defended - the Malfi Forest highlands on the other side of the river, which could control the entire Sedan area, were filled with bunkers one after another. At this time, an engineer officer from Austria used his expertise in interpreting aerial photos and came to a conclusion that surprised the German top brass - he believed that most of the French bunkers densely populated on the highlands of the Malfi Forest were just one dug one. The foundation is still far from ready.

There is also no shortage of farsighted and capable people in France. Some people have long guessed that the real main direction of the German army's attack is Sedan, and are deeply disturbed by the messy defense preparations of the French army in the direction of Sedan.

Ironically, he was not a soldier, but the parliamentarian Pierre Titange; he reported the poor defense situation of Sedan to the then Minister of War Édouard Daladier and the French Commander-in-Chief Gamelin. Chen "We placed too much hope that the forests of the Ardennes and the Meuse River would protect Sedan, and placed most of our hopes for the defense of Sedan on these things. Our army's defense work here can no longer be simple, but only It can be described as simple."

After receiving this report Gamelin forwarded it to General George, who asked General Anziger for an answer.

Unfortunately, General Anzire completely ignored this shocking and prophetic report. Seeing that their boss, General Anzire, was indifferent, the French troops were even less diligent when building fortifications.

Compared with these terrible firepower points, what is even more deadly is that the French army's minefield layout is insufficient. You must know that during World War II, the most effective defensive tactic to slow down the advancement of armored forces was continuous minefields covered by cross-fire from anti-tank guns. In the future, the German army suffered all the losses of the Soviet Red Army who used this tactic on the Eastern Front battlefield. suffering. The seemingly spectacular armored assaults of the German army were defeated again and again by the Soviet army's improvised minefields and anti-tank gun positions. Later, Rommel used similar tactics when dealing with Montgomery at El Alamein - laying 500,000 mines on a 70-kilometer-long defense line. This area was fearfully called the "Devil's Garden" by the British army.

However, on the same defensive front that is about 70 kilometers long, the French 2nd Army has only 16,000 landmines in total. Only 2,000 landmines are actually used in the Maas River defense line. Specifically, the French 55th Infantry in the Sedan section Division, only 422 anti-tank mines remained.

What is even more incredible is that the 55th Infantry Division has not even completed laying out a mere 422 anti-tank mines. The French officers and soldiers only focused on endlessly building bunkers and basically did not spend any energy on laying mines. Just before the German attack, the French army also removed some of the originally laid mines because they needed to lubricate these mines to prevent them from being corroded by moisture. These mines were not found by the Germans until 1941 in a dilapidated warehouse north of the Maas River. Guderian's armored forces had basically never encountered minefields laid by the French army.

The 55th Infantry Division, which was originally a second-rate infantry division, should have seized every available opportunity to carry out combat training - the vast majority of the soldiers in the division were over 30 years old and were reserve soldiers recalled after the outbreak of the war. All the combat skills learned while serving were forgotten. For this reason, the countermeasure adopted by General Anqire was to organize soldiers to participate in more sports activities to restore their physical strength. What’s even more incredible is that the French army even strictly prohibits soldiers and junior officers from conducting private training. A lieutenant of the 147th Fortress Infantry Regiment was arrested by the French army for boldly organizing a 25mm anti-tank gun battery for live-fire training. The top management directly ordered a 15-day confinement.